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julesmorgan's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I have such mixed feelings about this book. I think it does a good job entwining narratives of different characters in a realistic way. I wish the author would have done more with the daughter character. Not sure if I would have finished if I didn’t read it on a plane but i’m glad I did !
lac_a's review against another edition
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
avid_read's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
jukietoss's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Translated from the French, DEAR DICKHEAD, by Virginie Despentes is the angry, zeitgeisty epistolary #metoo novel I've been waiting for. I've read a range of novels that pitch themselves as grappling with #metoo, but none has been so cathartic and nuanced as this one.
It starts with an aging actress emailing a middle-aged male author recently-outed as a sexual predator to berate him for his heinous social media comments about her looks. To her surprise, he replies, and what ensues is an ongoing correspondence where they both represent the myriad perspectives seeking a voice in the #metoo movement--and so much more.
In other novels on the subject, I've been left resenting a) being asked to sympathize with bad men; or b) showing female characters doing way more mental and emotional work to try to navigate the #metoo landscape than the wrong-doers themselves do. Here, Despentes' story (and its format) takes away labor on the readers' or the women's part to make sense of or justify how they've been wronged and instead forces the guilty party himself to stumble through his bad behavior. Reading the women's perspectives (both the aging actress, and the woman who came forward about the author's sexual harassment) was cathartic as they synthesized the myriad points women the world over have been making about what it's like to function as a woman in patriarchy.
Adding dimension to the book is its in-depth grappling with addiction, cancel culture, and its understanding that no one is wholly good or evil. It becomes so much more than a #metoo novel as it shows an unlikely friendship emerge between the actress and the author as they each put words to their isolation, their reactions to pandemic lockdown, the imperfection of language, and on and on.
If you want a page-turner with an extremely smart lens on the current culture of aging, celebrity, sexual harassment, and addiction, scoop this up! It's memorable, thought-provoking, and surprisingly funny!
It starts with an aging actress emailing a middle-aged male author recently-outed as a sexual predator to berate him for his heinous social media comments about her looks. To her surprise, he replies, and what ensues is an ongoing correspondence where they both represent the myriad perspectives seeking a voice in the #metoo movement--and so much more.
In other novels on the subject, I've been left resenting a) being asked to sympathize with bad men; or b) showing female characters doing way more mental and emotional work to try to navigate the #metoo landscape than the wrong-doers themselves do. Here, Despentes' story (and its format) takes away labor on the readers' or the women's part to make sense of or justify how they've been wronged and instead forces the guilty party himself to stumble through his bad behavior. Reading the women's perspectives (both the aging actress, and the woman who came forward about the author's sexual harassment) was cathartic as they synthesized the myriad points women the world over have been making about what it's like to function as a woman in patriarchy.
Adding dimension to the book is its in-depth grappling with addiction, cancel culture, and its understanding that no one is wholly good or evil. It becomes so much more than a #metoo novel as it shows an unlikely friendship emerge between the actress and the author as they each put words to their isolation, their reactions to pandemic lockdown, the imperfection of language, and on and on.
If you want a page-turner with an extremely smart lens on the current culture of aging, celebrity, sexual harassment, and addiction, scoop this up! It's memorable, thought-provoking, and surprisingly funny!
s0nia's review against another edition
4.0
Apesar de não saber bem ao que ia, não pude deixar de me surpreender com a forma como o livro prende logo de início.
Original na forma de retratar a sociedade, de abordar assuntos pertinentes, fluido e cativante na escrita.
Peca por, a dada altura, se tornar um pouco redundante. E previsível…. Ainda assim não retira o mérito da abordagem, da temática e da escrita!
4⭐️
Original na forma de retratar a sociedade, de abordar assuntos pertinentes, fluido e cativante na escrita.
Peca por, a dada altura, se tornar um pouco redundante. E previsível…. Ainda assim não retira o mérito da abordagem, da temática e da escrita!
4⭐️
misteraxl's review against another edition
This book is kind of TOO good at portraying what it is - a repetitive email conversation between two unlikeable people who are very bored addicts with no-one else to talk to. It is too rambling, repetitive and naval gazing to be an engaging novel.
kateofmind's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Virginie Despentes does not miss. Six stars. Maybe seven.
mandibibbs37's review against another edition
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual harassment
minibookwellington's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
i think dear dickhead very well may make it into my top 10 reads of the year. i loved this even more than i thought i might going into it.
dear dickhead is an epistolary novel translated from french in which oscar, a moderately famous novelist, enters into an email correspondence with rebecca, an a list celebrity actress. their connection is spurred by oscar making some very dickhead remarks about rebecca online. oscar is also in the midst of a public canceling after a former publicist of his, zoe, blogs about allegations of sexual harassment from many years prior.
rebecca and oscar’s correspondence begins with rebecca admonishing oscar for being a true dickhead, but their conversations soon evolve into something of a friendship. they find an ability to be blunt and vulnerable with one another, and their conversations transform into fascinating meditations on class, socioeconomics, gender, sexuality, substance use, fame, addiction, and more.
this book went so many places i didn’t anticipate, and it had a surprising tenderness and hopefulness to it. i appreciated that the characters were incredibly dimensional and morally ambiguous. they grew, appreciated new perspectives, gained self awareness, and then doubled back on that progress, reverting to egocentrism, but then found optimism and growth once again. none of us are as uncomplicated as our first impressions, and dear dickhead exemplifies that beautifully.
to me this novel was about how we continue on when we’ve experienced a trauma and/or when we’ve caused a trauma in someone else’s life. it’s about acknowledging that we are the collected existence of our past, yet we also continue on to become every new version of ourselves.
i don’t think this read will be for everyone… some may get frustrated by the epistolary form and the way that oscar and rebecca and zoe talk over and past one another. some may just not enjoy reading loathsome, dickheaded characters. but for me, it was compulsively readable, and no matter what i felt toward these characters, the development of their friendship and the ways their correspondence impacted one another tangibly made it a hit for me.
dear dickhead is an epistolary novel translated from french in which oscar, a moderately famous novelist, enters into an email correspondence with rebecca, an a list celebrity actress. their connection is spurred by oscar making some very dickhead remarks about rebecca online. oscar is also in the midst of a public canceling after a former publicist of his, zoe, blogs about allegations of sexual harassment from many years prior.
rebecca and oscar’s correspondence begins with rebecca admonishing oscar for being a true dickhead, but their conversations soon evolve into something of a friendship. they find an ability to be blunt and vulnerable with one another, and their conversations transform into fascinating meditations on class, socioeconomics, gender, sexuality, substance use, fame, addiction, and more.
this book went so many places i didn’t anticipate, and it had a surprising tenderness and hopefulness to it. i appreciated that the characters were incredibly dimensional and morally ambiguous. they grew, appreciated new perspectives, gained self awareness, and then doubled back on that progress, reverting to egocentrism, but then found optimism and growth once again. none of us are as uncomplicated as our first impressions, and dear dickhead exemplifies that beautifully.
to me this novel was about how we continue on when we’ve experienced a trauma and/or when we’ve caused a trauma in someone else’s life. it’s about acknowledging that we are the collected existence of our past, yet we also continue on to become every new version of ourselves.
i don’t think this read will be for everyone… some may get frustrated by the epistolary form and the way that oscar and rebecca and zoe talk over and past one another. some may just not enjoy reading loathsome, dickheaded characters. but for me, it was compulsively readable, and no matter what i felt toward these characters, the development of their friendship and the ways their correspondence impacted one another tangibly made it a hit for me.
montes's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0